“Public services continue to deteriorate even as Mr. Taylor and his family – several of his relatives head ministries – loot Liberia, according to Western diplomats, international workers, Liberian and foreign business people here. A principal income source in the last couple of years has been Liberia’s rain forests, according to these officials. The Forestry Development Authority, headed by the president’s brother, Robert, has allowed a shadowy logging company, Oriental Timber, with headquarters in Hong Kong but mostly Indonesian workers in Liberia, to wipe out entire forests, diplomats say.”
Norimitsu Onishi, “In Ruined Liberia, Its Despoiler Sits Pretty,” The New York Times, February 7, 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/07/world/in-ruined-liberia-its-despoiler-sits-pretty.html